Tracked accordion window shade



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TRACKED ACCORDION WINDOW SHADE Filed Nov. 1 8, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IXIVENTORS fle/vazo 0. ez/swv,

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TRACKED ACCORDION WINDOW SHADE Filed NOV. 18, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 l4 FIG. 17.

United States Patent Ofiice 3,055,419 Patented Sept. 25, 1962 3,055,419 TRACKED ACCORDION WINDOW SHADE Arnold D. Rubin, 38 Merker Drive, Edison, NJ., and Rodman M. Elfin, 27 Ridgevvood Drive, Livingston, N .1. Filed Nov. 18, 1960, Ser. No. 70,349 3 Claims. (Cl. 160--84) This invention relates to a novel tracked accordion window shade.

The primary object of the invention is the provision of a window shade of the kind indicated which can be opened from the top or from the bottom, or from both the top and the bottom, in order to provide personally selected adjustment of light and ventilation for the user, and which, when closed at the bottom and open at the top, provides light and ventilation, with privacy, for such as bedrooms and bathrooms.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a simple, inexpensive, and easily installed window shade of the character indicated above, wherein a decorator accordion shade panel is secured at its ends and extends between upper and lower cross bars which have runners or slides at their ends which are slidably confined in vertical tracks which are secured on the sides of a window frame, and means are provided which cooperate with the slides and the tracks for holding selected adjusted positions of the cross bars, after manual adjustments of the cross bars.

A further object of the invention is to provide, in a window shade of the character indicated above, an accordion shade panel which is made of flexible cloth-like material, of any suitable composition, which panel is formed with vertically adjacent horizontal pleats, on opposite sides of the panel, which have individual slides or runners on their ends which are engaged in the slides, whereby in an extended condition of the panel, adjacent pleats are in edge to edge relationship, whereas, in a co11- tracted condition of the entire panel or of only a portion thereof, the pleats in such portion or the entire panel, are in side by side relationship.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a shade panel of the character indicated above, wherein the pleats are so formed as to have a bellied or convex contour in cross section, at the related sides of the panel, so as to impart a novel decorator appearance to the panel.

Other important objects and advantageous features of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the accompanying drawings, where, for purposes of illustration only, a specific form of the invention is set forth in detail.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view showing a shade of the invention installed in a window frame, and opened from the bottom of the shade;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged vertically contracted vertical transverse section taken on the line 22 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged fragmentary horizontal section taken on the line 3-3 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is a vertically contracted fragmentary section taken on the line 44 of FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical transverse section taken on the line 5-5 of FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 6 is a contracted perspective view of the upper cross bar, showing manipulating rods suspended thereon;

FIGURE 7 is a perspective view of the runner or slide having a modified form of spring;

FIGURE 8 is an elevation showing the shade opened both from the top and the bottom;

FIGURE 9 is a view like FIGURE 8, showing the shade open only from the top; and

FIGURE 10 is a fragmentary perspective view of the shade panel, showing the panel in fiat collapsed condition wherein the pleats lie flat, before the panel is mounted on and suspended between the cross bars.

Referring in detail to the drawings, wherein like numerals designate like parts throughout the several views, the illustrated shade 12 is shown installed in a window frame 14. The window frame 14 has vertical side members 16 extending between and reaching to a top cross member 18 and a bottom cross member 20.

The shade 12 comprises a pair of similar but reversed tracks 22 which, as shown in FIGURE 3, are preferably installed in rabbets 24, formed in the surfaces of the window frame side members 16, for the purpose of insetting the tracks 22, in order to put the side edges of the shade panel and the runners or slides on the ends of the cross bars, as near as possible to the side members 16.

The tracks 22 comprise sheet metal or other suitable material rigid channels whose side walls 26 are preferably arcuate, as shown, and have approaching free edges which define relatively narrow, centered vertical slots 28, the backs or webs 30 of the channels being flat and provided with countersunk screw head receiving holes 32, at intervals therealong, which receive mounting screws 34- which are threaded into the surfaces of the rabbets 24.

In conjunction with the tracks, L-shaped vertical shields 36 are employed, which have transverse legs 38 and longitudinal legs 40, the longitudinal legs 40 being located in front of and reaching into the window frame 14, away from the window side members 16; and the transverse legs 38 being clamped between the rabbet surfaces and the webs 30 of the tracks 22 and traversed by the mounting screws 34.

A plurality of similar slides or runners 42 are engaged in each track 22, each slide comprising a perforated solid plate 44 of lightweight rigid material, of such a plastic or lightweight metal, the plate 44 being formed, on its outer end, with an enlarged, preferably rectangular head 46 which is formed with aligned vertical grooves 48 in its opposite sides, which receive the edges of the track slot 2-8, and provide flanges 50 and 52 which bear slidably against the inner and outer sides of the track channel side walls 26, respectively, adjacent to the slot, with the flanges 50 or outer ends of the head 46 spaced from the channel web 30.

On the outer ends of slides or runners 4 2, related to the cross bars (hereinafter described) only, are affixed, as indicated at 54, one end of bowed vertically extending leaf springs 56, which have curved terminals 58 in their free ends, to make retaining frictional contact with the track webs 30 without digging thereinto. The leaf springs on the lower cross bar slides extend upwardly therefrom, whereas the leaf springs of the upper cross bar extend downwardly therefrom.

In the alternate form of runner or slide, shown in FIGURE 7, and generally designated 42a, the leaf spring is replaced by a coiled spring 56a whose outer convolution 58a is adapted to bear frictionally against the web of a track channel.

Engaged, at their ends, with the uppermost and lowermost slides or runners 42, are similar upper and lower extensible cross bars 60 and 62, respectively, which are composed of slidably telescoped channel sections 64 and 66, having webs 68, in which, at the outer ends of the sections, are formed openings 70, receive fastening means for securing the plates 44 of the runners or slides, in place in the ends of the cross b ars, such fastening means being in this instance, threads 72, which, as shown in FIGURE 5, pass through slots 74 and 76, formed in the runner plates 44.

As shown in FIGURE 6, the uppermost cross bar 60, is provided, especially in the case of a tall window, with a pair of pendant reach rods 78 which are individually and freely suspended from the sections 64 and 66, as indicated at 80, so that the upper cross bar 60 can be raised and lowered without undue reaching.

Extending between and secured to the upper cross bar 60 and the lower cross bar 62, is a flexible shade panel 82, which has attaching means embodying pockets or tubes 84 on its ends, made of the material of the panel, which closely receive the cross bars, and are secured thereto by means comprising threads 86 passing therethrough, through the cross bar openings, and back and forth through the runner plate slots 74 and 76,

The material of the shade panel 82 can be any suitable textile or other cloth-like material. The part of the panel between the tubes 84, is as shown in FIGURE 10, initially flat, with its side edges folded back upon the panel and hemmed, as indicated at 88, the remainder being unhemmed and formed into transverse horizontal box plates 90, whose side edges are close together. Adjacent pleats 90 alternate to opposite sides of the panel 82, and a vertical line of sewing 92, in line with the sewing 88, is engaged through the hem and the pleats 90, near to the side edges of the panel, so that, as shown in FIGURE 2, when the shade panel 82 is suspended freely from the upper cross bar 60, the pleats 90 bell out at opposite sides of the panel. When the panel 82 is uncontracted and not vertically bunched, as shown in the upper part of FIGURE 2, they do not reach outwardly or inwardly beyond the front and rear sides of the window frame side members, and the same is true of the plates 90 when they are contracted or vertically bunched, as shown in the lower part of FIGURE 2.

When the pleats 90 are bunched, as when the lower cross bar 62 is moved upwardly relative to the upper cross bar 60, or both cross bars are moved toward each other to a distance less than the full length of the shade panel 32, adjacent pleats 90 move in opposite vertical directions relative to each other, and come into side by side and angularly tilted positions, as shown in the lower part of FIGURE 2, thereby effecting an accordion shortening of the shade panel 82.

Although there has been shown and described a preferred form of the invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not necessarily confined thereto, and that any change or changes in the structure of and in the relative arrangements of components thereof are contemplated as being within the scope of the invention as defined by the claims appended hereto.

What is claimed is:

1. In a combination, a window frame having top and bottom members and vertical side members connecting the top and bottom members together, a track extending along each side member from the top to the bottom members and secured to said side members, an upper and a lower cross bar extending between said tracks, a slide means fabricated of rigid light-weight material and attached to and projecting from the opposite ends of each cross bar and slidably engaging said tracks, resilient means on the free end of each of said slide means and frictionally engaging said tracks, an extensible and retractable shade panel extending between said upper and lower cross bars, attaching means embodying a pocket on each end of said panel and wholly receiving said upper and lower cross bars, means fixedly securing each attaching means to the adjacent cross bar, said panel being fabricated of cloth-like material and having between its ends a plurality of transverse box pleats, said pleats being close together and alternating to opposite sides of the panel, and a slide means fabricated of rigid light-weight material and attached to and projecting from the opposite ends of each of said pleats and slidably engaging said tracks, the slide means on said cross bars being movable relative to each other along said tracks against the resistive action exerted by the resilient means upon application of upwardly and downwardly directed forces applied to said panel, and the slide means on said pleats being freely movable along said tracks responsive to upward and downward forces applied to said panel.

I 2. The combination according to claim 1 wherein each of said resilient means comprises a spring.

3. The combination according to claim 2 wherein each of said slide means comprises a solid plate fabricated of lightweight rigid material.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 604,329 Judge May 17, 1898 2,330,670 Black Sept. 28, 1943 2,336,660 West Dec. 14, 1943 2,513,152 Delivuk June 27, 1950 2,590,903 Stretz Apr. 1, 1952 

